Difference between revisions of "Mia Love"

Latest revision as of 18:59, 12 September 2024

Ludmya Bourdeau “Mia” Love is an American politician and in 2015 became a United States Representative for the fourth congressional district in Utah. Prior to her election, she was mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, from 2010 to 2014. In 2012, she narrowly lost her bid for the seat, losing to incumbent Democratic Representative Jim Matheson. In 2018, she was defeated by Ben McAdams in a close race that ended after she called for a recount after all late-arriving by-mail ballots were counted. She conceded on November 24, 2018. In the final months of her term, she was outspoken about her Republican party reaching out to and connecting with women and racial minorities. She was at that time the only black Republican woman in Congress.

Love was born on December 6, 1975, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents came to the United States in 1973 on a tourist visa, leaving their two older children behind in Haiti. They became naturalized citizens later. The family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, when Love was five years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree in the performing arts from the University of Hartford. She pursued several different interests, including working as a flight attendant for Continental Airlines. She ventured into community service when a neighborhood infestation of flies led her to working with city officials and developers to take care of the problem. Her skill in getting things done eventually led her to being elected a member of the city council in 2003.

She is the first Haitian American and the first black female Republican in Congress, as well as the first black person to be elected to Congress from Utah. She gained national attention when she spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention. She was the opening speaker at the 2013 Western Conservative Summit.

She married Jason Love in 1998 and they are the parents of three children. They met in Connecticut where he was serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He knew the missionary who had taught her the gospel and baptized her. She moved to Utah later, and that missionary asked Jason to help her move in.

The Love family continues to live in Saratoga Springs. In 2019, she was hired by CNN as a political commentator. In Fall 2020, Love was appointed a fellow of the institute of politics and public service at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. In August 2021, she was named as one of the guest hosts of ABC television's "The View."[1]

Mia Love spoke at a August 2023 YSA Conference in Salt Lake City sharing publicly for the first time that she was diagnosed with a Grade 4, fast-growing brain tumor about sixteen months previous. Ninety-five percent of the tumor was surgically removed. She also said that she has lived past her first prognosis, and hopes her prayers for a miracle and her participation in a immunotherapy clinical trial will give her many more months of life.[2] As of May 2024, she was still finding success with the clinical trial.[3]